Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - Episode 129 LIVE: Gaza Disrupts Congress – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Jasmine Jordan, a third-year student at the University of Iowa Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) presents powerful testimony on the importance of free speech on college campuses and the dangers of silencing conservative speakers and ideas. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-GA) speaks at a key House Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter and calls on Congress to protect freedom of speech on American college campuses. Rep. Gaetz also introduces an amendment that defunds the $300-plus million, brand new FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., larger than the Pentagon. We'll have more on that in a little bit, but for now, here's a clip from our live broadcast from Room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building in the Raybourne Building at the Capitol Complex in Washington. Firebrand is a production of the Firebrand Podcast Network. The Firebrand Team is comprised of four men and a woman who are dedicated to fighting for freedom and justice for all Americans. Our mission is to create a safe, secure, and fair workplace environment where everyone has equal access to quality education, access to information, and access to a safe and fair work place. In order to achieve that, we must all be educated, informed, and courageous in every facet of our society. This podcast is dedicated to educating, inspiring, and empowering all Americans to be their best selves in order to make informed decisions and live up to their potential in every aspect of their lives. Thank you for listening and supporting our message. Thank you so much for being a part of the firebrand movement. - Firebrand! - Let's keep fighting, fighting, and standing up to the fight for freedom, and live out loud and clear. Tweet us out loud! Timestamps: 1:00:00 - What do you agree or disagree? 3:30 - What's your opinion? 4:15 - What are you scared of freedom? 5:40 - What would you like to hear? 6:00- What's the worst thing you've ever happened to you? 7:30- What are your favorite part of college campus speech? 8: How do you think of a conservative speaker? 9:15- What do we should be allowed to speak out about it? 11:20 - How would you want to hear more? 14:00 15:10 - What is your opinion on this?

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:29.000 Thank you.

00:00:58.000 You're not taking Matt Gaetz off the board, okay?

00:01:01.000 Because Matt Gaetz is an American patriot and Matt Gaetz is an American hero.

00:01:06.000 We will not continue to allow the Uniparty to run this town without a fight. 1.00

00:01:11.000 I want to thank you, Matt Gaetz, for holding the line.

00:01:15.000 Matt Gaetz is a courageous man.

00:01:17.000 If we had hundreds of Matt Gaetz in D.C., the country turns around.

00:01:22.000 It's that simple.

00:01:23.000 He's so tough, he's so strong, he's smart, and he loves this country.

00:01:27.000 Matt Gaetz.

00:01:29.000 It is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you.

00:01:34.000 We will save America.

00:01:36.000 It's choose your fighter time.

00:01:38.000 I'm sending the Firebrands. - Welcome back to Firebrand. 0.99

00:01:47.000 We are broadcasting live out of room 2021 of the Rayburn House Office Building here at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. And votes are in just a few moments on yet another of our single subject appropriations bills and the amendments thereto.

00:02:00.000 I'll be introducing an amendment to defund The $300-plus million brand new FBI headquarters here in Washington, D.C., larger than the Pentagon.

00:02:09.000 We'll have more on that in a little bit.

00:02:11.000 But today in the House Judiciary Committee, we had a key hearing on free speech, college campuses, It erupted.

00:02:19.000 It was explosive.

00:02:21.000 Some of the best testimony we got was from Jasmine Jordan.

00:02:24.000 She is a third-year student at the University of Iowa, where she serves as chairwoman of the college's Young Americas for Freedom chapter.

00:02:32.000 The group's events have been protested repeatedly by Antifa.

00:02:35.000 Ms. Jordan has really been ostracized and threatened as a consequence of her conservative views.

00:02:41.000 She was also really harassed by some of the Black student union associations.

00:02:48.000 She was even called a white supremacist. 0.87

00:02:50.000 Powerful testimony in the House Judiciary Committee.

00:02:52.000 We take you there now.

00:02:55.000 In spring 2022, I joined Iowa Young Americans for Freedom when I discovered that this organization aligned with the Christian conservative values instilled in me by my church and family.

00:03:05.000 The more involved I became in the club, the more I discovered that the playing field for freedom of speech on college campuses was not equalized.

00:03:13.000 The first time I noticed this was when Iowa YAF hosted Kellyanne Conway as a speaker.

00:03:17.000 In response, I was doxxed in a group chat of over 800 students and was falsely labeled as a Nazi, a token, a white supremacist, and a bigot.

00:03:27.000 Some individuals even expressed that I made them uncomfortable and feared that I might commit a hate crime against them simply because I am black and hold conservative principles.

00:03:38.000 These students believe that if you are conservative, you are hateful, support oppression, and only want to benefit straight white men, even though such beliefs are untrue.

00:03:48.000 When we hosted Lieutenant Colonel Allen West to speak on campus last year, he spoke on the topic of debunking diversity, equity, and inclusion, and proved that America is not racist.

00:03:58.000 We used chalk advertisements to promote the lecture, which is something many colleges do, to effectively let students know about upcoming events.

00:04:05.000 Immediately, our chalk was altered, which is a violation of school policy.

00:04:10.000 New messages were put in place saying that Allen West is racist and that racism is prevalent in schools, thus critical race theory should be supported.

00:04:18.000 At Allen West's lecture, a protester stood in the back holding a sign that read, Stop the alt-right. 0.65

00:04:23.000 Punch your local Nazi today. 0.76

00:04:25.000 This is blatant irony. 0.98

00:04:27.000 Conservatives are slandered by students and faculty as harmful, yet here's an obvious example of someone openly delivering a violent threat.

00:04:34.000 And facing no repercussions.

00:04:36.000 The entitlement continues.

00:04:38.000 I find that when a conservative doesn't want to hear a speaker, they just don't attend the event.

00:04:42.000 But when a leftist doesn't want to hear a speaker, they do everything they can to shut the lecture down.

00:04:46.000 Our club recently hosted Matt Walsh.

00:04:48.000 Students and faculty were willing to do anything to cancel the event just because they found Walsh's speech to be offensive.

00:04:55.000 Some people were so dedicated to silencing our voices that literally as one of us was advertising with chalk, a leftist student was erasing each of those letters with a wipe.

00:05:04.000 We received death threats along with plenty of verbal harassment.

00:05:08.000 That night, before the speaking event, my hallmate, who happened to be the one erasing the chalk, stalked outside of my bedroom door by putting his ear on it to see if I was in my room because he was just so outraged by my involvement.

00:05:21.000 That was a terrifying experience, but what I find to be more appalling is when I talked to our hall coordinator about this, and she replied, people are allowed to think, feel, and react however they want to about this upcoming event.

00:05:35.000 At the event, someone threw 20,000 marbles on the floor to prevent people from entering the venue.

00:05:41.000 Attendees were spat on.

00:05:42.000 Outside, a popular pep band well known to our school played loud music to try and drown out the speaker's message.

00:05:49.000 I share these occurrences with you all to show that despite repeatedly meeting with the university administration, the rules are continually permitted to be broken by left-leaning students.

00:05:59.000 They are in fact coddled by our school.

00:06:03.000 We are back live.

00:06:05.000 That's Jasmine Jordan, third-year student at the University of Iowa and strong reactions on the live stream.

00:06:11.000 Rob on Facebook saying we need more Matt Gaetzes and MTGs in Washington.

00:06:15.000 I appreciate that.

00:06:16.000 I would certainly agree as it relates to MTG. And Bill says, is Matt for or against free speech since he became a Democrat?

00:06:25.000 It's hard to know.

00:06:26.000 Well, Bill, let me know how you think I've become a Democrat.

00:06:28.000 I think actually the Democrats here in Washington would have a very different perspective.

00:06:32.000 But there was a perspective that was shared in a pretty disruptive way at this hearing on free speech.

00:06:39.000 And you've got to appreciate the irony.

00:06:41.000 When you're having a free speech hearing and folks are not allowing the witnesses to give testimony, hear a great deal of angst over what's going on in Gaza.

00:06:51.000 And we actually got a little taste of maybe what some of these students who are getting harassed feel on college campuses.

00:06:57.000 Here is the raw footage from the House Judiciary Committee today.

00:07:01.000 The genocide of Palestinians and Israeli apartheid has existed longer than what has happened on October 7.

00:07:12.000 This has existed longer than that.

00:07:14.000 End the speech on Gaza now.

00:07:17.000 End the occupation.

00:07:19.000 You will not silence us.

00:07:21.000 We will not be silenced.

00:07:22.000 Cease fire now!

00:07:27.000 Cease fire now!

00:07:29.000 4,000 are gathered, children, and students are dead!

00:07:33.000 What is your right to preach if all of us are not free?

00:07:36.000 What does it mean if they can die until you can...

00:07:40.000 I want to say what this is saying.

00:07:41.000 Policy and liberation is not an anti-semit system.

00:07:44.000 Policy is their right to not be demonstrated.

00:07:47.000 I want to throw a punch directly.

00:07:49.000 Free nada! 0.98

00:07:54.000 Palestinians deserve to speak on the genocide of their families! 1.00

00:07:59.000 Palestinian students deserve to speak on the genocide of their families! 1.00

00:08:06.000 Stop silencing Palestinian students! 0.71

00:08:09.000 They're speaking of a genocide of their families!

00:08:13.000 Stop silencing the Palestinian students!

00:08:16.000 It is an honor to bring my experience to you.

00:08:18.000 Palestinian students should not be censored!

00:08:21.000 You want to talk about putting money where your mouth is?

00:08:24.000 There are 10,000, over 10,000 from Gotham dead.

00:08:28.000 And more, Gary, half of whom are under the age of 18. And you're going to say money is talking about this?

00:08:36.000 Where are you going to deny these Jews in this room?

00:08:38.000 Nowhere.

00:08:39.000 So you are not offering plurality of opinion.

00:08:43.000 You are offering partisanship.

00:08:44.000 And you are offering murder to more Gotham. 0.89

00:08:48.000 Break up! 1.00

00:08:53.000 We are back live. 1.00

00:08:54.000 Lynn on Rumble says these morons need to be arrested. 1.00

00:08:58.000 Joe on Facebook wonders whether or not it's an insurrection. 1.00

00:09:01.000 And Ms. Soto saying they are liberal rich kids with no clue.

00:09:06.000 It's quite something that we no longer embrace this notion that we can present our ideas to one another and have those criticized and reflected upon and subject to public debate.

00:09:17.000 Now, increasingly, You have a dynamic where if people don't like the speech of another entity, they just want to shut down that speech and limit it and not engage with it.

00:09:27.000 And clearly what you saw here were these students speaking out not in order to have a discussion, but to try to have a heckler's veto over the witnesses that we had brought forward.

00:09:39.000 They didn't want those witnesses like Jasmine Jordan to be able to share their story, and so they just heckle over them. 0.85

00:09:45.000 We've got to get past that.

00:09:47.000 Even some of the most liberal Democrats, Communist Socialists that are here in Washington, D.C. deserve to be able to present an argument in the halls of Congress.

00:09:56.000 Now, that argument ought to be subject to rebuke and the best in rhetorical opposition that we can bring to bear when it's not the right thing for our fellow countrymen.

00:10:08.000 But I do not like deplatforming as a strategy to win an argument.

00:10:15.000 I'd rather confront that argument dead on and have it, and not just say there's these verboten areas of speech.

00:10:23.000 And so there were witnesses today, like the next clip I'm going to show you, this woman, Dr. Nadell, she's there to really reflect on anti-Semitism as a concept.

00:10:35.000 And the inherent tension in this hearing is you've got these students, like Jasmine Jordan, saying, look, we want to speak, we want to be heard, we want to have our First Amendment rights.

00:10:45.000 Vindicated, not subject to this heckler's veto.

00:10:47.000 While at the same time you have some of these anti-Semitism experts saying, well we're here to tell you all the things that shouldn't be allowed to be talked about.

00:10:54.000 And one of those things, she said, is George Soros.

00:10:57.000 Anything that's a criticism of George Soros is inherently anti-Semitic.

00:11:02.000 And I pushed back on that.

00:11:04.000 Because whether it's pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro-Gaza, anti-Gaza, pro-America, anti-America.

00:11:13.000 Let's have the debate.

00:11:15.000 Here's the discussion from House Judiciary.

00:11:17.000 Take a listen.

00:11:19.000 Is it possible to criticize George Soros without being anti-Semitic?

00:11:26.000 I don't know all the tropes that people use to associate with George Soros, but when they talk about...

00:11:34.000 No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:11:35.000 Not when they talk about something else.

00:11:36.000 Is criticism against George Soros ever not anti-Semitic? 0.98

00:11:43.000 That's the question.

00:11:46.000 Ms. Burdette has offered to answer that.

00:11:48.000 No, no, no, but you mentioned Mr. Soros.

00:11:49.000 I want you to answer this.

00:11:51.000 There's no phone a friend here in the Judiciary Committee.

00:11:54.000 What has happened in the United States is that we use different code words.

00:12:01.000 Right, no, I'm not, that's not the question.

00:12:03.000 Wait, I'm answering your question.

00:12:04.000 We use different code words to disguise anti-Semitism.

00:12:09.000 And so Soros has become the code word that replaced Rothschild, that replaced Shiloh.

00:12:14.000 But is it possible to criticize him without being anti-Semitic?

00:12:17.000 Yes or no?

00:12:18.000 I don't know the context.

00:12:19.000 I'm not going to talk without knowing context.

00:12:21.000 So there's no context.

00:12:21.000 That is just an astonishing thing.

00:12:23.000 And similarly you said any critique of globalism is anti-Semitic.

00:12:27.000 Now that really is an Austin Powers word.

00:12:29.000 No, what I said was that the word globalist, I didn't say any critique of globalism, what I said was the word globalist had become the new code word for the internationalist code word from the previous period.

00:12:42.000 But you ascribe that motive.

00:12:44.000 See, when I criticize globalism, I'm often criticizing the UN, which then in turn goes around and criticizes Israel.

00:12:52.000 So if critiquing a globalist entity that criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic...

00:12:59.000 So why use the word globalist instead of the UN? Well, because the UN's goals are to have a global order over things that deprive countries of their sovereignty, One of those countries is Israel.

00:13:10.000 That is the great hypocrisy of what I think is frankly a reverse trope that any criticism of Soros or any criticism of globalism is somehow anti-Semitic.

00:13:20.000 Sometimes they're just criticisms of Soros and of globalism.

00:13:23.000 But I see my time's expired and I yield back.

00:13:28.000 We're back live.

00:13:29.000 And yeah, doesn't that make obvious sense that we're able to separate the person or their identity from the goals of a political movement?

00:13:39.000 That's what is acceptable about criticizing globalists or globalism.

00:13:44.000 There are a lot of globalists who I have no idea what their faith or background or ethnicity is.

00:13:50.000 I see that what they're trying to do is deprive the American people and frankly other countries from their own sovereignty.

00:13:55.000 And I believe that sovereignty is one of the greatest drivers of self-determination ever created on planet Earth.

00:14:02.000 In the absence of it, we all just become cogs in a system, producers and consumers.

00:14:08.000 Not identified with a common sense of pride.

00:14:11.000 Something that allows us to break through some of these disagreements and concerns.

00:14:17.000 So, I think that going forward, we have to understand that Milk toast speech and broadly accepted speech doesn't need the protection of the First Amendment.

00:14:28.000 It is horrid speech, offensive speech, speech that we don't like, that we have to acknowledge has a right to permeate the marketplace of ideas, and the best way to confront that and defeat that is with more speech, better speech, and more thorough argument.

00:14:43.000 And that is what I try to bring to the House of Representatives.

00:14:46.000 Another person who brings that terrific argument is our good friend, Senator J.D. Vance.

00:14:52.000 So let me break down what's going on right now.

00:14:54.000 You've got Mitch McConnell in the Uniparty and Joe Biden and Hakeem Jeffries all trying to lash Israel aid to Ukraine.

00:15:05.000 And in the House, we passed an Israel aid bill that hollowed the money out of the IRS. So that we weren't deficit spending.

00:15:13.000 We weren't borrowing money from China so that we could provide aid to Israel.

00:15:18.000 We would actually prioritize what we were doing in a fiscally responsible way.

00:15:22.000 Well, in the Senate, they are doing everything they can to kill the House bill.

00:15:26.000 And one man doing work, leaning in, representing the America First perspective and putting a fly in the ointment for Mitch McConnell, just like I knew he would, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.

00:15:40.000 We bring you now to the Senate floor.

00:15:44.000 Many of my colleagues may forget that a matter of weeks ago, a matter of months ago, there were people in this chamber, there were people in the United States of America demanding that the State of Israel give money and weapons to the Ukrainians.

00:15:58.000 Money and weapons that the Israelis are now using this very moment to defend themselves. 0.92

00:16:04.000 The idea that these policies are not in tension with one another, the idea that what happens in Russia and Ukraine is separate from what happens in Israel is not just obvious, it is common sense, and it has been borne out by the reality of the last couple of weeks.

00:16:19.000 Now, my colleagues would like to collapse these packages.

00:16:22.000 Too many of my colleagues would like to collapse these packages because they would like to use Israel as a political fig leaf for the president's Ukraine policy.

00:16:31.000 But the president's Ukraine policy, just like the Israeli policy, should be debated.

00:16:36.000 We should talk about it.

00:16:37.000 We should discuss it.

00:16:38.000 We should separate the costs and benefits and analyze them as distinct policies, because that is what the American people deserve of their legislature.

00:16:47.000 Now, there are many questions we could ask about the Ukraine policy, many issues that have gone completely unanswered.

00:16:53.000 Number one, what is our end goal in Ukraine?

00:16:56.000 You hear commonly that the goal is to throw the Russians out of every ounce of Ukrainian territory.

00:17:03.000 And yet, when you talk to the president's own administration in private, they admit that that is a strategic impossibility.

00:17:10.000 Let me repeat that.

00:17:11.000 No rational human being in the president's administration believes that it is possible to throw the Russians out of every So why is that the public justification offered by many advocates of indefinite, unlimited Ukrainian aid?

00:17:28.000 Because this debate is fundamentally dishonest.

00:17:31.000 We are not telling the American people the truth because we know that if we did tell them the truth, they would not support an indefinite flow of money to Ukraine.

00:17:40.000 What are we doing, ladies and gentlemen?

00:17:42.000 How long is this supposed to go on?

00:17:45.000 How much money are we expected to spend?

00:17:48.000 What is the strategic objective?

00:17:50.000 What are we trying to do?

00:17:52.000 Are we monitoring the fact that we have spent nearly $200 billion, if the supplemental passes, $200 billion to one of the most corrupt countries in the world?

00:18:04.000 Do we have proper assurances that all that money is being spent on the things that we tell ourselves that it's being spent on?

00:18:12.000 The answer, of course, is no, because we have not had a real debate in this chamber.

00:18:16.000 The American people, I think, should be ashamed of us for that fact.

00:18:20.000 Let me offer just one final observation here.

00:18:24.000 You have heard In this chamber, you've heard even today that the Ukraine policy was born of a spirit of bipartisan agreement.

00:18:35.000 That we had this moment where Democrats and Republicans recognized that it was very, very important to help the Ukrainians push back against the Russian attack.

00:18:45.000 And of course, we support and praise our Ukrainian friends.

00:18:48.000 They've done a lot more than many people gave them credit for.

00:18:51.000 But let's also be honest that for 30 years, Washington, D.C. has run on bipartisan foreign policy wisdom, and it has run this country to the ground with $1.7 trillion deficits, war after war after war, that has killed thousands of Americans, millions of other people, and has not led to the strategic strength of this country.

00:19:14.000 It was great bipartisan agreement after September the 11th that threw Saddam out of Iraq.

00:19:20.000 And of course, a lot of people celebrated it until we now realize that Iraq is a client state of Iran.

00:19:25.000 We empowered one of the worst regimes in the world with our bipartisan wisdom.

00:19:31.000 Maybe what we should have is some bipartisan wisdom that the foreign policy of consensus of this country for the last three decades has been a disaster.

00:19:40.000 It's been a disaster for this country.

00:19:42.000 It's been a disaster for our dead Marines, Army soldiers, Navy sailors, and Air Force airmen.

00:19:49.000 It has been a disaster for this country's finances, and it has been a disaster for the entire world.

00:19:56.000 Let's have a real debate.

00:19:57.000 We haven't had one in 30 years.

00:20:02.000 We are back live.

00:20:04.000 RebelNurse97 on Rumble says, I did reckless spending once.

00:20:08.000 Took me nearly a decade to recover.

00:20:10.000 And another comment, I love that J.D. Vance was elected.

00:20:14.000 He and Congressman Gates, modern day statesman.

00:20:16.000 It's a great thing to see.

00:20:17.000 We agree entirely with what J.D. Vance just said.

00:20:21.000 Make sure to share it far and wide.

00:20:23.000 But as he was speaking...

00:20:25.000 We got breaking news out of NBC. House subpoenas James and Hunter Biden in GOP-led probe of the president's family.

00:20:35.000 Finally, Hunter Biden got a damn subpoena. 0.63

00:20:39.000 When we had the California lottery winner instead of a constitutional lawyer in the Speaker's office, we weren't exactly seeing the subpoenas fly in a way that demonstrated sincerity and rigor to a real investigation. 0.98

00:20:52.000 But now, with Mike Johnson in the Speaker's office, we get the news.

00:20:56.000 House Republicans on Wednesday issued subpoenas to Hunter and James Biden, as well as Biden family associate Rob Walker.

00:21:03.000 Marking an escalation of the Republicans' impeachment inquiry into the president.

00:21:07.000 The piece continues.

00:21:08.000 Comber's office said he plans to send additional subpoenas and transcribed interview requests later this week.

00:21:13.000 The subpoenas and interview requests come after the special counsel overseeing the probe into Hunter Biden testified before the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors earlier this week.

00:21:23.000 That was an interview that I was a part of.

00:21:27.000 And I can tell you this right now, David Weiss was not entirely forthcoming when it came to his communications with the Department of Justice, with other people who had jurisdictional claims to Hunter Biden matters scattered about the American Northeast and even on the West Coast.

00:21:45.000 It is about time.

00:21:46.000 We fully applaud this decision to send the subpoena to Hunter and James Biden.

00:21:51.000 I have been speaking with House Speaker Mike Johnson about the process and flow of subpoenas as recently as this week.

00:22:00.000 And so we're glad to see it.

00:22:02.000 And know this about litigation.

00:22:05.000 There are times when subpoenas are...

00:22:08.000 Altered in scope, where they are negotiated, where they are redrafted.

00:22:14.000 So this is a process that frankly Kevin McCarthy had blocked.

00:22:21.000 For quite some time.

00:22:22.000 And we're behind as a consequence of Kevin McCarthy's poor leadership.

00:22:26.000 But now we are doing what we need to do to get on track.

00:22:28.000 Breaking news.

00:22:29.000 James Biden and Hunter Biden getting subpoenas to testify.

00:22:34.000 We will be all over that to ensure that we get accountability over the Biden crime family.

00:22:40.000 But it wasn't just a subpoena to Hunter Biden that I have really been pressing to advance.

00:22:47.000 It's also been the release of the January 6th tapes and better oversight over the treatment of January 6th prisoners.

00:22:53.000 At this stage of the game, releasing the tapes alone is not going to get the job done.

00:22:57.000 We actually have to get answers regarding how people's civil rights are being abused, or we cannot keep sending money to a government that is making us look terrible on the world stage by using people as political pawns.

00:23:11.000 I have been so frustrated about the inability at times to meet with some of the January 6th prisoners and get evidence directly from them to bring into our congressional work.

00:23:21.000 The Bureau of Prisons has frustrated that effort.

00:23:25.000 So we had the head of that bureau before the House Judiciary Committee.

00:23:28.000 She gave me a commitment that I will get to go and meet with these folks, and it is something I look forward to doing very, very soon.

00:23:36.000 There are specific people who I think have been Really, really subject to some of the worst retaliation.

00:23:42.000 John Strand, who you know from the field hearing that we had on January 6th, and also Owen Schreyer.

00:23:49.000 So take a listen to that exchange.

00:23:53.000 Does the Bureau of Prisons retaliate against people based on constitutionally protected speech?

00:24:00.000 I have been very clear that retaliation will not be stood for on my watch.

00:24:04.000 And you're confident that that's being observed throughout the Bureau?

00:24:09.000 I'm confident that message has been delivered, and if anyone engages in retaliation, we will hold them accountable.

00:24:15.000 Are you familiar with the matter of John Strand?

00:24:17.000 People were posting on some of his social media platforms his concerns about the treatment he'd received at the Bureau.

00:24:23.000 And then I sent a letter to you concerned about that, because like you, I don't want anyone retaliated against for constitutionally protected speech.

00:24:30.000 And thereafter, I got a letter back from the aforementioned Office of Legislative Affairs in your office, and they say, In part, Mr. Strand was moved to a secure housing unit with increased supervision and frequent employee contact on September 26, 2023, pending completion of an investigation.

00:24:47.000 So, I guess my question is, when someone, is that like akin to what we would normally think about as solitary confinement?

00:24:56.000 Those words?

00:24:57.000 Secure housing unit with increased supervision and frequent employee contact?

00:25:00.000 We would use the word restrictive housing.

00:25:02.000 Okay.

00:25:03.000 So what's this then?

00:25:04.000 Because this guy was never violent toward anyone, so I'm just wondering why the assets that we fund for the highest acuity violent people would be used for this purpose.

00:25:16.000 Congressman, we use that special housing unit for individuals that engage in any sort of misconduct inside our institutions.

00:25:24.000 I don't know what he was found to be guilty of by our hearings administrative process that would warrant his Uh, need to go into restrictive housing, but I assure you we have administrative processes that people have to go through before those placements actually occur.

00:25:43.000 Yeah, I get that you can't know the conditions of every single prisoner throughout the Bureau.

00:25:48.000 This is one I've ripened and sent to you because I am worried that throughout Our Department of Justice and what we've endured, that there are some people who are sort of being used as pawns, and they're being mistreated in order to send a message to other people.

00:26:04.000 And I'm grateful that you've said here that is not your doctrine, you don't want to see that happen, but you also haven't been able to share with us an entire confidence that that isn't happening in some cases.

00:26:13.000 And I'm worried that it's happening here.

00:26:15.000 Have you heard of the matter of Owen Schrayer?

00:26:17.000 No, that name is not familiar to me.

00:26:19.000 Very similar fact pattern.

00:26:20.000 You know, somebody who had sort of spoken out, was prominent in the public, Was convicted as a consequence of activities on January 6th and now feels as though there's specific Bureau of Prison retaliation.

00:26:33.000 I don't think any group of people should be retaliated against, so I look forward to taking you up on the offer to perhaps go in and do some site visits and see how people are being treated and get that information directly.

00:26:42.000 So I hope I get prompt cooperation from OLA. We will seek that cooperation.

00:26:50.000 We will do those site visits and we will share with you directly what is going on behind bars.

00:26:54.000 If there are Our fellow patriots, our fellow Americans being mistreated as a consequence of politics and what the Department of Justice is trying to do to scare everyone into believing that if someone is MAGA or America First or supports gun rights or supports a strong border, that they are somehow dangerous.

00:27:13.000 That is what overlays these individual actions against individual people.

00:27:17.000 And Owen and John And the many others, many names I'm seeing on the live stream, they should not have to bear a disproportionate brunt for a weaponized government.

00:27:29.000 We should stand with them, and we should do more, and Congress should do more, and I should do more.

00:27:33.000 That's why, frankly, we told McCarthy, if he didn't get with the program on the January 6th tapes, that his speakership would face a motion to vacate that ultimately turned out being successful, and there will be these tapes on the way.

00:27:46.000 I expect them in tranches.

00:27:48.000 And I expect Mike Johnson to get right on it.

00:27:52.000 There's other breaking news on something we've talked about a great deal on Firebrand and that is Senator Tuberville's holds on military promotions as a consequence of the DOD unilaterally without a change in the law deciding that they're going to pay for travel and time off.

00:28:07.000 So that service members can have abortions. 0.79

00:28:09.000 This from Bloomberg government.

00:28:11.000 NDAA emerges as the way out of Tuberville's holds.

00:28:15.000 The piece says, Republicans haven't yet found a way out of Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama's blockade of more than 450 promotions of military officers, but the must-pass defense policy bill has emerged as an option.

00:28:29.000 GOP senators put their heads together in a meeting yesterday to find out a way forward.

00:28:32.000 Though they didn't reach an agreement, everyone walking out described it as constructive and positive, including Tuberville himself.

00:28:39.000 The defense authorization bill would be a solution, Tuberville told reporters after the meeting.

00:28:44.000 The House version carries a prohibition on the Pentagon's travel and leave policy, and Tuberville indicated he would accept that as a solution if that prohibition stayed in the final conference bill that would head to President Joe Biden for his signature.

00:29:00.000 Ladies and gentlemen, Tommy Tuberville has just given us all a lesson in leverage today.

00:29:06.000 So you had this House bill going to explicitly state in policy, in law, Actually voted on by our elected representatives that we were not going to allow this type of subsidizing of the abortion industry through the Department of Defense.

00:29:24.000 And Tommy Tuberville objected to the fact that in the absence of any change in law, any change in the Hyde Amendment that says no public money toward abortion, They were just doing it anyway.

00:29:35.000 And so if Tommy Tuberville didn't have the pressure of those 450 holds sitting over DOD right now, I can tell you exactly what would happen.

00:29:44.000 They would strip out the clarifying language from the House bill, And they would just keep doing everything the way they're doing it.

00:29:51.000 But because Tommy Tuberville put on those holds now this provision that I fought for, that my colleagues fought for in the House Armed Services Committee, it's got more of a chance than ever to become law.

00:30:05.000 The lives this will save, the value this will provide to the national defense, all of us owe Senator Tuberville a great deal of gratitude.

00:30:12.000 And I owe you gratitude, but right now we're heading for votes on the House floor.

00:30:16.000 I'll be meeting with some of our leadership in the coming hours to discuss the path forward on government spending.

00:30:21.000 As you know, I am for the single-subject spending bills.

00:30:24.000 I summarily reject this notion that we fund all of the government all at once for all the same time.

00:30:32.000 That's how the Uniparty wins, and that's how we end up $33 trillion in debt, so we'll be working on that later today.

00:30:37.000 Thank you so much for joining us.

00:30:39.000 Give us that five-star rating, leave a review.

00:30:41.000 Let us know what you'd like to discuss on future programs as we give you updates right here from the halls of Congress.

00:30:46.000 Roll the credits.

Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - November 08, 2023

Episode 129 LIVE: Gaza Disrupts Congress – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

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